Sunday, August 02, 2015, 3:29 p.m.

Dozens of customers defrauded in Michigan debit scam

DETROIT — DTE Energy Co. says dozens of its customers have been burned in a debit card billing scam that also has hit the state's other leading utility.

DTE said Tuesday that about 100 of its small business customers have lost at least $40,000 in the past five months to people posing as employees of the Detroit-based power company. It says there have been 29 fraud cases since the beginning of the year.

The company says in the scam, people call businesses, say they owe large amounts of money and face power shutoffs within an hour without a payment with a Green Dot debit card.

On Jan. 14, Jackson-based CMS Energy Corp. warned its customers of the Green Dot card scam, saying there had been 118 fraud attempts since Nov. 22.